College Board and ETS look to tighten security on SAT

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — A security firm run by the former director of the FBI has been retained to review security — and will recommend changes — on standardized testing procedures following an SAT cheating scandal on New York’s Long Island, officials with the nonprofit organizations behind the tests said Tuesday.

The officials from The College Board and Educational Testing Service made the announcement at a hearing of the New York state Senate’s subcommittee on higher education. The ETS administers the SAT on behalf of the Princeton, N.J.-based College Board.

Sen. Kenneth LaValle, the subcommittee chairman, convened the hearing after seven current or former students at Great Neck North High School were arrested last month. Authorities said six of the students had an older college student who had attended the high school take their exams in their place in a quest for better scores.